Bicakcic, an official of the Muslim SDA, and the HDZ BiH chief Covic are charged by the prosecution of the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina with having made unlawful decisions in 1999 and 2000 when the former was the entity (Federation) prime minister and the latter a deputy prime minister and the finance minister with the purpose to help government officials to purchase and equip their private flats.
In this way, Bicakcic and Covic embezzled 7.8 million convertible marks (approximately slight below EUR 4 million) from the federation's budget.
One of officials who is believed to have unlawfully acquired a flat is Nedzad Brankovic, a former federal prime minister, who recently stepped down after he found himself in in the middle of several scandals.
Separate criminal proceedings have been launched against Brankovic before the cantonal court in Sarajevo
This is the second trial of Covic for abuse of office before the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In the first trial he was indicted for unlawful exemption of the meat-processing company Lijanovic from paying customs tariffs.
The first-instance trial chamber sentenced Covic to five years in prison. The verdict was later quashed.
The retrial is transferred to the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo which has not yet set a date for the retrial's commencement.